


The Lost That Found Each Other

by Jellycho



Category: Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Friendship, Gen, first upload top lel, the birth of an ot3
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-03-08
Updated: 2014-03-08
Packaged: 2018-01-15 01:11:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,726
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1285627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Jellycho/pseuds/Jellycho
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Three hearts wandering aimlessly without really belonging anywhere. Three hearts that, once brought to the same space, don't really fit but can learn to be together in time.</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Lost That Found Each Other

She's been around the longest.

Naminé observes, more than anything, the pass of time and the way it affects everyone. There's not much else you can do when you don't exactly belong anywhere. She watches as groups of friends find each other, recompleting themselves, discussing and comforting one another with a mix of love and relief around them.

She learns people's names even if they don't bother learning hers. Naminé first learns Aqua's name a few days after she's rescued from the realm of darkness, and even though they exchange a few words and smiles, the blonde can still tell that Aqua's attention lies elsewhere, if the way she gets lost in thought and covered in gloom and worry sometimes is any indication of it.

Naminé doesn't blame her for it. Everyone here is incomplete in one way or another.

Axel-- _Lea_ comes up next; he's alone, but content in knowing that at least one of his friends is safe and sound. Naminé rejoices upon having someome she's a little more familiar with around. The man can't really blame her for getting his name wrong every now and then, and he usually just laughs it off. "You'll get it right one of these days," he tells her, ruffles her hair affectionately.

Yet despite his attentions, Naminé can tell that he's got more pressing matters over his shoulders. Two young kids whom he's shared some time as Axel with, to be precise, but the way Lea talks makes Naminé wonder if maybe, just maybe, there's someone else in that list that she doesn't know of.

That's something that keeps her interested, curious. At least for now.

The young girl sighs, begins to draw. She's gotten better at her own power already, finally realizing her true potential and releasing it. She sits alone, surrounded by people who she knows to different degrees, who she gets along with differently, and yet feeling sorely out of place.

Sora, Riku, and Kairi are all familiar to her. They often talk, offer her company, advice, sometimes even help with her growing power, but it's simply not enough. Lea has always been kind enough for her to not feel too threatened or intimidated, and now that he's got a heart again, it's almost as if he were a completely new person.

Aqua, she's completely out of the question. Though she's kind and welcoming, she's also worried out of her mind, so getting her to lighten up is harder than it should be, but it's understandable why she can't let herself rest.

Yes... Naminé, while protected and accompanied, simply does not belong. She can't help feeling bitter while she continues her practice drawings, but at the same time, she can't blame anyone for her own inability to fit in either. Maybe one day she'll be able to squeeze herself into a group and feel complete.

Maybe one day, if she looks hard enough.

* * *

Time has mercy on Lea one day, and finally, his group comes together again, becoming complete. Naminé's a witness of the first two's struggles, and they greet her happily and eagerly. But her attention lies somewhere else, on a man with long blue hair and sea green eyes that reflect a heart as heavy as stone, even as he refuses to meet anyone's gaze.

Now she knows his name is Isa, knows that he and Lea shared a bond a long time ago that had been the reason for Lea to fight for him. The way Lea spoke of Isa by the end of his journey to find him made her think of a proud, mighty man, intimidating and yet fun... but all he sees in him is uncertainty.

Watching his stay with their growing party is almost painful. The way he hides himself, separates and isolates himself _on purpose_ is something Naminé can never imagine herself doing. At one moment they finally catch each other's eyes, and she understands; Isa is the same as her, alone in a crowd, feeling only the vaguest flicker of belonging. The way he looks at everyone as though he's a complete stranger is too familiar for her, and she wishes it was not.

On one night, with the rest of their group camping underneath the stars and telling stories to lighten up the mood, Naminé finds Isa sitting alone and away from the warmth of the fire. The man is too busy staring upward at the countless stars to tell her off, to say anything, and for once the blonde feels peace. She stares at him trying to decide as to what she should do, but doesn't feel pressured to do anything just yet.

That's a first.

They spend enough time in silence to grow used to each other's quietness. When Isa looks down Naminé tilts her head in curiosity, as there's no visible change in his behaviour to indicate that he wants her gone yet. His face is hidden behind his bangs when he speaks:

"...Do you know how to navigate using stars?"

Naminé takes in the sound of his voice; proud, yet scared. Small and hidden while still retaining a certain amount of strength. She decides she likes it, and she smiles at him to reply, "No, I don't. Is that what you're doing?"

Isa nods. He gestures to the sky and begins explaining what he knows in a tiny voice that rises in confidence as he goes on and on, as he reaizes that Naminé is genuinely interested, not just asking out of politeness. The girl is amazed, lost in the information as she tries her best to keep up with the discreetely excited man next to her.

She doesn't know when it is that she falls asleep. However, when she awakens the first thing she notices is the blanket thrown over her, and how Isa has spent the night not next to her, but nearby.

The smile on her face while she wakes him up is geniune, and the first of many more to come.

* * *

They make a strange duo, but at least they're comfortable together. Isa helps Naminé with her power, and she helps him cheer up when Roxas and Xion take too long to get used to Isa, not Saïx. Both of them tell Naminé to get away from him before he does something terrible to her, but the young artist refuses-- she can take care of herself, make her own decisions. She thinks that can trust her own intuitions.

She loses her track on time as she spends it with her new friend, and even in battle now that she's got her power under control to use as she pleases. Turns out she makes for a formidable ally, and she feels her heart bloom with happiness as she receives praise after praise, something she's wanted for so very long.

Isa sets a hand over her shoulder when she goes back to him. "You did great," he says, and he offers her one of his rare smiles that would usually go to Lea instead.

Naminé gives him one her biggest smiles, and it seems like he appreciates it.

Days later, when the rest of their group is out looking for something Naminé isn't all that informed about, something interesting happens upon their arrival.

Aqua, usually surrounded by restrained smiles, walks back to camp with the biggest, brightest smile the blonde girl has seen on her in a long time. When Naminé's eyes fall onto the one walking by her side, the reason why she's smiling, she gasps; the boy looks just like Roxas, but he's wearing some kind of armour over his shoulder, different clothes, and even the way he walks and talks is different from Sora's other half.

Another thing that catches her attention is yet another boy trailing along. His hands are bound, his face contorted with so much raw _anger_ that Naminé feels chills run down her spine when he sets his eyes on her. Despite the black hair he looks too much like Sora, and one look at the keyblade wielder tells her that, yes, even Sora is freaking out about the whole appearances thing.

Naminé stays out of the way while everyone frets over the black haired boy. Nobody knows what to do with him, and from what she can pick up from conversations here and there, he's dangerous, almost on par with Master Xehanort. His name hops from mouth to mouth until it lands by her, and she tests it out almost fearfully.

"Vanitas," she whispers, and when his golden eyes land on her again she jumps. Vanitas smirks, and Naminé wonders if maybe he could hear her all the way over there... she decides not to find out and simply turns away and leaves.

She continues to avoid him until one day she's tasked with bringing him food. Despite her protests she can't really shake off the duty; everyone is busy doing something else, and the only ones available are Isa and Lea, but no one can find them and they're pretty sure they're not going to appear until much, much later.

The two need a bit of alone time, she supposes.

But there's no more time to waste. If she wants to get this over with as fast as possible she'll have to go in, leave the food, and get out as fast as she can. So taking a deep breath to stabilize herself, Naminé walks quickly to where Vanitas is being held captive.

The moment she enters his field of vision, he looks up and smirks with all the malice he can muster. "Well, hello there," he spits. "You're a nice change from the usual fuckheads who come only to alleviate their frustrations."

She staggers back at the foul word. Vanitas finds this amusing and laughs out loud. "What's wrong? Does the bad man with the yellow eyes scare you that much?"

Naminé tries to regain her voice and retaliate. She takes yet another deep breath and speaks. "I'm not... afraid of you."

"Oh, really now?" Vanitas scoffs. "Your trembling voice and hesitation tells me otherwise, not to mention that you're shaking. How about you just get on with the delivery and get the hell out of my sight?"

"How did you know I'm shaking?"

"Well, at least you've got the balls to admit it." Vanitas's voice is suddenly cold and distant, and Naminé guesses it's because his patience is quickly running out. He looks up at her with all the annoyance in the world embedded in his eyes. "You're easy to read. And pretty plain as well, not an interesting much to see. Now get out."

He gets his wish; Naminé drops the plate with the food almost aggressively and walks out, offended and embarrassed.

* * *

"Why are you being held captive?"

"Why do you fucking keep coming back?"

"What's your relationship with that boy Aqua arrived with?"

"Seriously, you're so goddamn annoying. Go _away_."

"Are you working for Master Xehanort? Why, and how?"

For some reason, days after their first encounter Naminé has made it a daily thing to visit Vanitas and question him. Though she knows that he won't answer right away, she's already come up with a plan; Vanitas' patience runs low, and he's quick to anger. Perhaps during one of those outbursts he'll spill the beans.

It hasn't happened so far, but hey, she still tries anyway.

Somewhere along the road she loses her fear of Vanitas. Not enough for her to get overly confident and lower her guard. She knows he's dangerous, she knows she shouldn't be here, but he hasn't broken out or caused _too_ much trouble, so Naminé guesses it's okay to visit anyway.

She sighs in defeat and deflates. "I'll be back tomorrow," she mumbles before she gets out.

Vanitas doesn't even care calling out insults anymore.

* * *

Isa doesn't approve of her visits to their 'prisoner', or so he calls Vanitas. He expresses worry at having her so close to someone so dangerous and deep in the darkness, who could so easily harm her with his tricks.

"It's not safe," he keeps telling her. Naminé is grateful for his worry, but she reassures him that she will be fine. She's no longer just a girl with no way to protect herself; her power grows each and every day, and she has a control over it that could rival Ienzo's power of illusions.

To create things from a drawing, give them life, and use them as her own arsenal and for her own defense. Who knew she had so much potential in her?

Still, Isa asks her to not visit Vanitas for at least one day. He offers her to spend it with her instead, to watch the stars again, teach her how to cook something. Naminé can tell that there's something else beneath that offer, with the anxiety obvious in Isa's voice and movements. He gets like this sometimes, and the blonde girl helps him by staying close and making him company for as long as it is necessary.

All he needs is someone he doesn't feel extremely guilty with. Because, despite Lea's attempts at reconnecting, Isa is still hesitant.

They spend as much time together as needed for Isa to go back to normal, and Naminé is surprised when she notices two days have gone by. When Isa leaves her alone once again she makes her way to Vanitas' location, wondering if maybe he noticed she was gone, if he'll be willing to talk this time--

"Wow, you're not dead. I was hoping you'd be."

The hurt frown and pout that spread over her face make Vanitas laugh.

* * *

"You didn't eat your lunch."

"It's shitty."

"Well, what would you prefer to eat instead, then?"

"Fuck if I know."

When Vanitas' otherwise foul attitude makes Naminé laugh out loud, the other has every right to be startled.

* * *

The visits continue and Vanitas still refuses to speak. After a while Naminé just stops caring about getting him to talk and decides to have actual conversations, discuss whatever comes to mind and, if the boy is particularly unresponsive, just sit back and draw in silence.

On one of those days, Vanitas raises an eyebrow. "What are you drawing?" he asks. He seems surprisingly interested, even if just to mock whatever it is that Naminé is doing.

She smiles without taking her eyes off her creation. "Just some scenery."

"Sounds boring," the black haired boy falls on his back and whines. "You're boring. Do something entertaining."

"Excuse me for having my own interests."

"I liked it better when you didn't even dare talk back. Now you're just a lot more fucking annoying. Stop doing that."

"Mmhm..."

They fall back into silence, save for Vanitas' sporadic whining.

* * *

"Come on! He won't do anything to you, I promise."

"Naminé, he's a prisoner for a reason. I don't trust this."

"Please!" Naminé drags Isa by the arm to Vanitas. She's somehow managed to half convince him to visit him with her, mostly by not accepting a 'no' for an answer and just dragging him along anyway. "I've been here _lots_ of times. It's okay!"

"Naminé..."

"Come on, just a few minutes! Please?"

Isa makes a face. There's worry there, and also apprehension and a lot of hesitation, underneath which there's fear. Reading Isa has become easier for Naminé with the pass of time, as she's become one of his confidants when he needs to vent. The other one is Aqua, though when she's busy, Isa never fails to come back to the blonde artist.

Naminé is about to speak when Vanitas' voice suddenly reaches them. "I can hear you all the way here," he shouts, "Shut the fuck up. Go away."

That only makes Isa frown in concern and frightened confusion. Naminé rolls her eyes, grabs his hand in a comforting manner, and shouts back: "We're not leaving, Vanitas."

"Ohhh for the love of fuck," she hears him mumble as she approaches.

When they come face to face with him, Isa tenses considerably. Vanitas doesn't even put up a cocky attitude; he's pissed off, and he's more than willing to lash out at this new person who dares trespass into his territory. For the first time Naminé is at a loss; maybe this wasn't such a good idea--

"Wow," Vanitas suddenly smirks after a good amount of silence passes them by. "Never thought I'd see _you_ again."

Isa runs away before Naminé can even call out to him. She watches him retreat, full of confusion, before she turns to look at a cackling Vanitas.

"You know each other?" she breathes.

Her voice snaps him out of his little fit. He shrugs, the smirk gone and replaced with a smug smile. "Oh, not exactly," he laughs, _"We_ don't know each other."

Naminé frowns. "What do you mean?"

"I mean I don't know _him,_ and _he_  doesn't know me aside from a few leftover memories. It's easy--"

Naminé doesn't have the time to listen to him. She already knows the gist of what happened to Isa, as he's told her some of his own story without going into details, to know that what she's caused is not a good thing. She ignores Vanitas' furious calls for her to come back and runs after the blue haired man, apologies already spilling out of her lips as she intends to fix what's happened.

* * *

She doesn't go visit Vanitas the next day. Isa forgives her, but she intends to stay with her one friend until he completely feels better and stops feeling so anxious about Vanitas. Maybe if she stops visiting him for a while Isa will relax.

A few days after the little incident the two are called to help in a battle. Naminé is eager, yet she keeps her head calm and in the situation so as to not fail her comrades. As her power has quite the long casting time, she stays in the back, aiding her friends and allies as quickly and as best as she can.

"You'll do great," Sora smiles at her when they arrive. Naminé smiles back warmly at him and gets ready when another voice appears.

The fight goes smoothly until the end. When the enemy, one of Xehanort's vessels, realizes her role in the entire thing, he rushes at her, avoiding each and every other person in the field in favour of going against her.

Naminé has no time to think. She constructs herself a shield and staggers back, and when the vessel realizes she's out of his reach, he simply uses brute strength to break the shield and get her back in his view. He raises his weapon at her, ready to strike down and get her out of the way--

A flash of blue tackles him, an overpowering animal roar resonating through the entire field. It's so fast that Naminé only has time to think of one name before she passes out, the world fading to black and the sounds becoming muffled until they're all gone.

Isa.

* * *

She awakens back at the camp with several people fretting over her. It's nice to see and hear, the fact that so many people care about her now, that she's almost reduced to tears out of gratitude, but she contains herself. The feeling of not really belonging slowly melts away as she's taken care of, and she smiles when Aqua and Kairi finally let her go back to her routine.

"You're all better now," Kairi tells her. Naminé gives her a hug and thanks her for her help before leaving the two behind.

Her first thought is to look for Isa. He's been on her mind all day, with the fact that he saved her from her possible demise back then during battle. She goes all around camp asking for where he is, but no one seems to know. Not even Lea, who is so determined to go back to their old ways, knows where he's gotten himself lost.

She's about to leave when Xion speaks up. "I thought I saw him near Vanitas' place," she says. Naminé notes how neither Xion nor Roxas seem as angry with the mere mention of Isa as they did on the first day. Perhaps it's all the time Lea's forced them to spend together that made the difference, perhaps they now see the difference between Nobody and vessel and human. She doesn't know, but she smiles either way, thanking her for her assistance.

The walk to see Vanitas is shorter than it ever seemed before, and halfway there she notices how strong she feels. How confident, how happy, how _different_ from the first days of her stay along with everyone else. And though she feels a sense of belonging with the rest of her friends, Naminé doesn't forget the one person who helped her feel less like a stranger, or the one person to help her stand up for herself, even if just by bantering and blindly insulting her.

Naminé smiles. So much has happened in such little time, and she's absolutely glad that it happened.

Even the air around her feels different. Lighter, easier to breathe it in and exhale, carrying the sounds of a growing happiness from everyone in camp. Slowly every group of friends comes together again. Slowly bonds regrow and repair themselves. Slowly, so slowly, life goes back to normal, and people thought lost come back to prove that there are no impossibles.

Their journey is not over yet, but they can do this. All of them can.

When she arrives Naminé can't help the surprised gasp. She sees Isa standing before Vanitas, and neither look aggressive or distraught. Vanitas' golden eyes once again rest on Naminé, but this time she doesn't feel the shiver down her spine, or the toxicity that comes out of his expression. Instead Vanitas looks rather serious, with his arms crossed and his face unreadable.

Isa turns back to look at her, and she doesn't see leftover fear. She sees relief, the purest kind she's seen from him, and he even allows himself a small smile for her. Naminé smiles back; she can tell that he's anxious, but not terrified.

She walks over to the two, about to speak, when Vanitas interrupts her. "Wow, you're not dead," he mumbles, then scoffs and frowns. "Congratulations."

Naminé stops, then grins.


End file.
